"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

White Flint Public Amenities Planning charrette -- tonight

One of the things that many communities don't do very well is planning the integration of civic assets such as libraries, recreation centers, meeting spaces, and various types of parks into new developments, master planning, and the creation of communities.

Well, maybe other communities do it well, DC doesn't because we don't do master planning at neighborhood-district-sector scales. We do "small area plans" but they aren't full master plans, and they aren't neighborhood plans--they are development management plans for the most part, although good things can result, we often miss things (I am no less at fault, I can point out to big gaps in terms of public space in both the NoMA and Brookland plans, and I should have been more conscious of this and worked to correct it during the plan development processes).

As I have mentioned, I believe that the White Flint redevelopment program in Montgomery County Maryland, along with the replanning and redevelopment of Tysons Corner in Fairfax County Virginia, are two of the most significant community redevelopment planning efforts across the United States.

Both are attempts to reconceptualize and redefine sub-urbanity for the 21st Century, and they are a lot more urban--without all the mess of economic and racial diversity which typifies center cities--than suburbs tend to be comfortable with (see the recent entry, especially the comments, "Montgomery no longer a homogenous suburb," from Greater Greater Washington).

One of the things that makes these kinds of re-planning efforts a bit uncomfortable for me is that for the most part, the planning is led by private sector initiatives that are most commonly driven only by the profit imperative, so integrating public spaces that aren't merely gussied up spaces of consumption and consumerism is either an afterthought or never happens at all.

The White Flint plan will be including an public amenities plan. The White Flint Sector Plan identifies several public amenities to serve the existing and future White Flint Community. These amenities include, but are not limited to:

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About Me

I am an urban/commercial district revitalization and transportation/mobility advocate and consultant and a principal in BicyclePASS, a bicycle facilities systems integration firm, based in Washington, DC. Urban economic competitiveness is dependent on efficient transit and mixed use, compact places. Therefore, I end up writing mostly about mobility and urban design. While I am based in and write about Washington, DC issues, I try to write so that "universal lessons" are evident in the entries.